We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nicole Gustin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nicole below.

Nicole, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

In 2014, I went to Miami for vacation and was looking for fun things to do. I came across a food tour. I had never even heard of a food tour, but I saw that it included restaurants, and being a foodie, I immediately signed up. It was amazing. We walked through South Beach, learned the history of the art deco buildings and sampled food from different restaurants. We had Argentinian, Cuban and Italian food and more. I loved it so much that I wanted to start a food tour back in Atlanta.

At this time, the Atlanta BeltLine had just been built on the Eastside, and was becoming popular. I moved to an apartment on the BeltLine, and spent nearly all of my time walking the trail. The BeltLine became my backyard. In 8 years, I walked over 1,000 miles on it.

I also watched my neighborhood grow and change from the BeltLine. I saw two food halls open – Ponce City Market and Krog Street Market. It seemed like new restaurants were appearing all the time, and I tried nearly every one of them – often arriving the day they opened. I brought my friends on the BeltLine, showing them the restaurants and telling them about the street art on the trail. They were in awe. I was already acting like a tour guide, so I decided to make this not just my passion, but my business.

It took me at least two years to set up BiteLines, as I had a full-time marketing job. I did test runs with my friends, and launched my first Food & Art Tour on the Atlanta BeltLine just before COVID shut everything down. I waited over a year, until I felt that it was safe, and relaunched in June 2021.

I always credit the tour in Miami with giving me the idea for my business, and I have since been on several other food tours. It’s a great community, with tour operators supporting each other. Several of them have become mentors to me. It’s a fun way to make a living, and I am forever grateful that I took that trip to Miami!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am the Founder & CEO of BiteLines, which offers Food and Art Tours on the Atlanta BeltLine. We eat our way down the Atlanta BeltLine, sampling food from James-Beard nominated chefs and discovering Atlanta’s cosmopolitan food scene. Along the way, we explore the city’s embrace of vibrant street, learning the stories behind the artists, including their ties to Hollywood. It is a fun way to experience Atlanta and sample some of its best restaurants.

In Atlanta, a lot of people have heard of the BeltLine, and maybe they’ve been there once. But many people don’t know where to start, or they have seen Ponce City Market and would like to explore more of the BeltLine. We offer an insider’s experience, showing them the best places to go and taking them only to restaurants we highly recommend – the places we go and bring our friends to. We interact frequently with the art. At one point, we give everyone a can of spray paint and let them be a street artist for a minute. People love this part of the tour.

When it comes to eating out, no one wants to risk trying an unknown restaurant. We take all the guesswork out of it for our tour guests, so they can relax and enjoy the food, and find places they want to return to.

We get both metro Atlanta residents and out-of-towners on our tours. They might be celebrating a birthday or anniversary, or having a mystery date or a cousins’ reunion or bachelorette party.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media has been a lot of fun for me. I already have a marketing background, and ran social media accounts for other companies. But doing it for my own business is much better because I can be more creative! The Atlanta BeltLine is one giant photo op – from the art to the restaurants, to people riding bikes and scooters…when I first launched my company, I was on the BeltLine every day taking pictures and posting them mostly on Instagram. This is how I started to build a following. The key is not only consistency, but frequency. The more you post, the more visibility you get and the more likes and followers.

Video has surpassed photos now, and Tik Tok is the new thing. I like video – but it’s more time consuming than posting photos. This is an area I know I need to develop, as this wave is only getting stronger.

My peers who do well on social media are definitely sharing videos of themselves and their tours. But I have also learned that just having a social presence is more important than the number of likes you get. I might get a couple dozen likes on a post, but it is also selling bookings. I love hearing that people found me on Instagram or Facebook.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I had a false start. I spent two years building my business, while working full-time, and had just launched my tours in the fall of 2019. I took a break for the winter, and planned to ramp up in the spring. Days before my tours were supposed to resume, the world shut down from COVID.

I waited over a year until I felt that it was safe to resume my tours – relaunching in June 2021 and only eating outside at the restaurants. But while I was waiting to launch, I wasn’t sitting still. I was taking tons of pictures and video – of the Atlanta BeltLine, of street art, of artists putting up murals. I interviewed the artists, and got the backstory to their work. I posted a lot on social media and accumulated a stash of beautiful photos, which I used to replace stock photos on my website.

Also, as new restaurants opened, I changed my tour itinerary to include restaurants that were even better than the ones I had before.

By the time I ramped up again, I had a much better tour to share with the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bitelinesatl.com/
• Instagram: bitelinesatl
• Facebook: bitelinesatl
• Linkedin: BiteLines LLC
• Twitter: bitelinesatl
• Yelp: BiteLines
• Other: Trip Advisor/Viator: https://www.viator.com/tours/Atlanta/Food-and-Art-Tours-on-the-Atlanta-BeltLine/d784-199292P1?mcid=61846

Image Credits
BiteLines Food and Art Tours